Dance with Hekapoo
by Darkmoose84
Summary: Marco and Hekapoo have a brief truce for a night and take time to get to know each other before their game continues the next morning. Please R&R


**Finished at last. Took a week to perfect this thing. I kept changing the dialogue because I wasn't initially happy with it. Ultimately, it boiled down to settling on what made sense to me, at least as far as Hekapoo's varying temperament. I really hope you enjoy it; it's a bit melodramatic, but you know, these feelings are part of the human condition as well. Running with Scissors was very inspirational to me, with a whole cornucopia of adventures that one could tell about Marco and his quest for the scissors.**

"We walked the loneliest mile\We smile without any style\We kiss all together wrong\No intention...It's like I told you\Only the lonely can play." – The Motels, "Only the Lonely"

Savage Forger Dimension – Believed Year 2024 Anno Domini but it's hard to keep track here.

Marco stoked the fire he had made on a small clearing on the side of Mount Irabus. The person in the previous town had already dared him and paid upfront for him to stay one night on this supposedly haunted mountainside. And, of course, being good to his word, Marco followed through with the challenge. It had supposedly been the site of a great many tragedy, although the locals would not say what.

It didn't matter to him. He was still alone. At least he got 1,000 gold pieces out of the deal.

His dragoncycle, which he had affectionately dubbed Nacho, chewed on a large piece of jerky he had given her earlier. He watched as she chewed on it vehemently while the dire lizard he had fought earlier that day roasted on a spit over the fire. He continued to try and keep said fire alive, much like the fire of the passion for finding those accursed scissors.

He looked to the sky, and that's when the notion hit him that now had arrived that 667th day in which the blood moon had shown once more. It hung like a massive red eye in the middle of a vast sea of stars and ominous swirling clouds. The massive satellite seemed to stare down at him, as if to judge him for various reasons.

He thought of Star. What was she doing right now? Was she okay? What did she look like after these eight years? He imagined she looked very beautiful now. Did she remember him?

There was this dreaded feeling of being watched, not just by the celestial body, but by eyes more terrestrial. Marco looked down to see what appeared to be a shadowy figure with yellow glowing eyes. It stared at him before turning its head to the side and vanishing. He saw yet another one at a different spot on the side of the hill; it stared likewise at him for some moments before sullenly bowing its head and vanishing. Several more figures did the same thing, causing Marco to wonder if these were not the spirits to which the townsfolk referred. What mainly disturbed him was that many of them looked small, almost the size of children. It was as if they were gazing upon him in some sense of covetousness before turning back to their sad existence of being lost souls.

Were they indeed the eyes of cursed spirits or the dancing embers from his campfire? At this hour of the night, his mind was fully open to the fantastic and the possibility of something strange and frightening.

Still, it was safer here than down below. Various creatures hissed and growled within the fire swamp, swirling and biting at each other to show dominance. While Marco may have felt his skills as a fighter had improved, fighting that many creatures at once was suicide. At least the ghost-haunted mountain had some height advantage. If one one of the creatures were to climb up to him, however, it wouldn't stand a chance against the shrapnel bombs he placed on his way up. Of course, he would remind himself later to disarm them on the way down. (Or at least try and go a different route down the mountain.)

Unfortunately for him, these would not keep him safe if someone were to teleport onto the top of the hill next to him, which is exactly what happened.

A portal opened roughly 10 feet from him, closer to the edge of the mountain, and with its orange-red swirls, he knew who it was.

Hekapoo stepped out onto the dark crimson earth below the rip in reality. She was holding a fiery sword in one hand and a glowing whip in the other.

"Hekapoo, what are you doing here?" Marco asked in some surprise, grabbing his own sword, prepared for a fight, "I thought we agreed on having no more portals in your little game!"

"I'm not playing tonight, little boy," she said with a smirk, "Tonight, I just want to talk."

"Those weapons you're holding are telling me a different story."

"They were just a precautionary measure, in case you flipped out in seeing me," she replied, tossing the weapons to either side of her, which promptly fizzled into small embers and then to ash, "But if you do try anything funny..." She then pointed to her horns and made a "Pew!" noise with her mouth as the flame above her head grew larger in a quick burst of plasma. "As much as you huff and puff, you couldn't dream of blowing this out, big bad wolf."

"So you're here to 'talk,'" Marco reiterated, still gripping the handle of his sword tightly, "What do you want to talk about? Want to hurl more insults at me, more pithy comebacks?"

"Just...to...talk..." Hekapoo retorted, her smile fading to a scowl. This was the face he always recognized when she was frustrated, be it with him or just about anything, and he had seen it plenty of times. The fiery aura around her only reinforced this. But she still tried to speak as civilly as she could. "If I was looking for trouble, I would have already attacked you. Plus, you're fatigued and hungry; I could swat you like a fly right now, which I really wouldn't enjoy in the least. So relax, sit down, and let's have a discussion. 'Kay?"

Marco's grip loosened gradually, still running on adrenaline, until he at last let go and decided to follow her instructions. He then took a seat by the fire, and she followed suit, sitting next to him, their shoulders touching.

"See, isn't this better?" Hekapoo asked rhetorically.

"I really don't know what to expect from you anymore," Marco said.

"Isn't there an old saying, 'Expect the unexpected?'" she replied.

"That would apply to you."

"I was thinking the other day," she continued, "we've been at our little game for so long and yet I don't really know that much about you beyond that you're human and apparently know Princess Butterfly."

"I'm just a dedicated guy trying to get my friend's scissors back," he responded.

"That I can see," she laughed, "But, seriously, what's driving you through all this? I've given you plenty of portals back home, and you haven't bothered to walk through even one. Is all this really worth it? The blood, sweat, and tears you've put into this search?"

"Like I said, dedication is key," Marco replied, "I've always been the focused one in my school and among my friends. Something I could say I picked up from years of martial arts, but it's also because I strive to be the best, be it the best student, the best fighter, or the best friend. And since I got those scissors from Star, I'm determined to get them back to her."

"So this is stemming from your own desires," Hekapoo laughed again.

"Are you implying that I'm selfish?" Marco asked, slightly annoyed.

"I don't know," she answered with the coyness of the cat who caught the canary, "Maaaaaybe?"

"No, this mission isn't for me," Marco said.

"And it's not just to prove how 'great a friend you are?'" she asked, "Or is it all about getting it back simply for her sake? What if you give them back to her, and she yells at you for losing them in the first place?"

Marco paused and looked down at the ground, reflecting on what she just asked.

"I'm prepared for whatever punishment the princess gives me," Marco finally muttered, "But the right thing to do is to get her back the scissors. They were hers, and I lost them."

"Hmm," Hekapoo mused, "Selfless after all. Good boy." She paused and asked him something he didn't want to hear. "What if she doesn't remember you after all this time?"

"Please don't say that," he growled.

There was a thick silence that lingered in the air between them. The two eventually looked up at the dark, ominous sky. Through the hazy nimbus overhead, a few stars were able to twinkle above the blasted landscape. The blood moon seemed to be growing brighter, despite the ever swirling clouds attempting to obscure it.

"You have the ability to travel to my home," Marco broke the silence, "What's happening on Earth now?"

"Eh, you're not missing much," Hekapoo answered, "Your fellow humans are obsessed with this weird, purple headbanging bird on their stupid social media outlets."

"No, I mean my friends and family. How are they?"

"Same as always, believe it or not," she replied. She paused for a moment before continuing, as Marco rolled his eyes at her passive response. "You know, you've been out here on your own for a long time. Do you ever get lonely?"

"Sometimes," he answered, "I try to imagine my friends are still with me in some way, that we're still linked together across dimensions." He then looked back up at the blood moon, and it seemed to look back at him. He looked back down, realizing again that these were simple delusions he chose to believe to make himself feel better, nothing more.

Hekapoo watched his actions; it was the exact response she expected from him, but it still was not exactly easy for her to watch, even if this was her opponent in this long running chase.

"Did you have a special girl back at home?" she decided to ask.

"I did," he answered with some hesitation, "Her name was Jackie. Nice girl. Got my first kiss from her, you know." Hekapoo made a short snicker to herself; she questioned how important this girl must have been to him, if he was doing all this for Princess Butterfly.

"Do you still feel for her?"

"I still feel some care for her," he said, "even if it was puppy love. I really don't have any context for anything else. I haven't been with any other girl since. I've been so focused on chasing you..." And with that, he felt Hekapoo lay her head on his shoulder. He had no idea how to respond to this. The massive flame above her head was now hovering ten feet above them so as not to burn his ear off.

"Even after all these years," Hekapoo asked, "no other girls, aye?"

"No one else caught my eye, no matter how many towns I visit on this world."

"You know what I think," she continued, "I think you REALLY loved Princess Butterfly."

"Star?" Marco stammered, "She's just a friend. A really close friend, but that's all we were."

She looked up at him, meeting his gaze, her head still on his shoulder. She gave him a sarcastic smirk, a look that said she did not believe him in the slightest. But after looking into her eye (the one her bangs were not covering), he began to feel his heart race. It had been so long since he had been this close to a woman. To break the awkwardness, he looked back up at the moon, and she did the same. It was an extraordinary bright crimson.

"You know the story about dancing below the blood moon, right?" she asked him.

"That if you dance under it, your soul melds with your dance partner," Marco replied, "Oh, yes, I know the legend well...In fact, Star and I danced under it eight years ago at a certain Blood Moon Ball."

"And it aaaaaall makes sense now," Hekapoo giggled, though she wasn't moving from his shoulder. "I guess there really is no chance..."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing," she sighed. It seemed to him that she was tired as well. Did creatures of her species even get tired? Maybe she was lonely, too, and that's why she wanted pay him a visit. It didn't matter. For tonight, they could pretend they weren't rivals, that they could be close friends. She actually did kind of remind him of Star more than he would probably care to admit. She had the same spunky attitude towards everything, though she could be a little more vicious. Tonight, however, he felt like he was safe to let his guard down around her, as it seemed like she was as well.

"Tell you what," Hekapoo said, standing to her feet, "I have an idea." She turned around and held out her hand to Marco. "Care to dance?"

"I'm not sure about this..." Marco hesitated, at which Hekapoo rolled her eyes.

"If it helps you," she responded, "just pretend I'm the princess, okay?"

"I mean we don't have any music," he clarified.

"That can be fixed," the fiery forger said. With that, she ran to an open space on the hillside and opened a portal in the air, from which three human musicians fell out, along with a piano, a guitar, and a drumset.

"Hey, how did we get here?" the dark haired, middle aged pianist asked.

"And how are we going to finish the recording now?" the balding drummer asked, equally confused, "Atticus isn't going to like another interruption."

"Do they have food here at least?" the tattooed guitarist inquired with a groan.

"You're here to play us a tune," Hekapoo explained to them and poked the dark haired one on the nose while making a "Boop!" noise. The three musicians shrugged and began playing a tune. Hekapoo walked back over to Marco and held out her hand again. "There, problem solved." He took her hand with some hesitation and let her pull him to his feet.

The band played some slow, melancholic song that echoed through the mountains. It seemed fitting for a dark, moonlit night like this. Marco and Hekapoo danced and twirled with each other spinning here and there to the rhythm. During the moments when he spun her close to him, it seemed as though neither of them wanted to move away from each other. She felt strangely comforted with this mortal holding her close; it had been centuries since she had gotten this close to any man, let alone allowed one to hold her in their arms. Marco was just happy that a woman was showing interest in him again, or so it seemed.

And as the blood moon grew brighter and the song picked up its tempo, Marco could not help but think of his dance with Star. He thought of how she looked. Her eyes, her golden hair, the red and pink dress she was wearing, and above all, the incensed smile she had while they danced, at least before he revealed who he was.

As the song was coming to a close, Hekapoo stopped Marco in his tracks.

"Marco, kiss me," she blurted.

"What?"

"I mean it," she demanded, "Again, picture me as her if you have to." Marco once again hesitated as he saw Hekapoo close her eyes. He inhaled and braced himself. It had been too long since he had done this. Here goes, he thought as he closed his eyes likewise. Finally, he leaned in, and their lips met, both of them feeling the warmth of the other flowing through them. He had somehow managed to not let her teeth stab him.

This connection felt amazing. He did actually wonder, for a brief moment, what it would have been like to kiss Star, as the red light of the moon grew brighter, causing his eyelids to react and fly open. And in that brief moment, Hekapoo was replaced with a vision of what he thought Star would have looked like at 22 years of age.

At length, the song ended, as did their kiss, and the two stepped away from each other.

"It's been too long since I felt anything like that," Hekapoo swooned. She opened her eyes and saw the confused look on Marco's face; immediately she understood. "But I know your feelings lie elsewhere..." She turned her back to him and crossed her arms. There was an uncomfortable silence.

"Um, if you two are done with your dance," the dark haired musician began, "can we go home?" Hekapoo raised her arm and opened another portal to let them go home. She then handed each of them a $20 US dollar bill as they walked through. At least it was not the worst gig they had ever played. The portal closed, and the two figures still stood together on the mountain, now under the fading light of the blood moon.

"Hekapoo, I..." Marco finally stammered. Hekapoo just arched her shoulders as though she were just stung by a bee, not wanting to look at him.

"It's okay, Marco!" she snapped, "I get it. Really, I do." She finally turned around and gave him the most pleasant smile she could muster. "You gotta understand, boy, I've been around for a long time. Meetings and passings are just the way it is with mortals, no matter how amazing they are. And yeah, I think you're amazing, dude. Take with that what you will. Hopefully it gives you a morale boost, and that's kind of what I wanted to give you tonight. What can I say, I'm a good sport when it comes to these games. " She held back yet another sob and tried to remain as pleasant as she could. "But thank you for the dance and the kiss. And for that..." She then bowed down, holding the sides of her dress in a curtsy pose, "...I'll let you blow out this iteration's flame." The raging fire returned to her head and shrunk down to the size of the other clone's flames.

"But...you'll vanish..." Marco said.

"Just this double of me," she replied, "You're not killing me. We share a hive mind. Besides, I had a good run, and we had a good night. Game's not nearly over. How many more of me do you have left to go?"

"About 24."

"Well, that just means I have to step up my game tomorrow doesn't it," she responded, "Well, go on...Do what you gotta do..." she winced, awaiting what was coming.

"Can I say something first?" Marco asked.

"Spit it out," she said.

"I think I get it, too," Marco began, "All this has been to help me grow stronger. This journey I'm taking, all the perils I've faced, and the new knowledge I've gained, it was all because you want to teach me something and help me grow to be a better man. You've given me a new sense of survival and a newfound confidence in myself. And for that, I think you're amazing, too. Thank you so much, H-Poo."

"How many times have I told you not to call me that?" Hekapoo asked, annoyed but still with a laugh, "Plus, I think you're overthinking it. I'm mostly still playing this game with you because you're just too much fun. But is that all you had to say?"

"Yes...it is."

"Then go for it."

Marco inhaled deeply once more before letting out a long exhale. It was more of a large sigh than a blow. The Hekapoo clone was gone, leaving him with the sound of the haunting night wind, Nacho finishing her jerky, and the distant screech of some creature as a much larger creature devoured it.

He was, one again, alone.

Marco awoke in his tent to the bright sunlight streaming in from the opening in the flaps of the entrance. He squinted, trying to regain his composure before heading outside, still groggy from the previous night and not wanting to retreat from the comfort of his sleeping bag and feather pillow. Still, he forced himself out, dressed in what was available to him, and proceeded outside to see that Nacho was gone. She was obviously on the hunt for her early morning meal but would obviously return as she always had.

A thick mist rose from the swamps below as the temperature changed with the morning, but this did not disallow Marco from seeing the bright blue sky, scattered with small clouds here and there. The mist was thicker towards the ground level as he looked over the hillside. The ghosts and monsters were not patrolling the outer edges during the day, thankfully.

He could, however, hear the haunting melody of what sounded like a group of minstrels in the distance. As he focused through the haze of the mist that rose from the moors water below him, he could see there were indeed a group of musicians, which included a bagpipe player, a guitarist, a drummer, and a female singer outside of their caravan. They were playing some slow, sad melody at the edge of a vast forest that Marco was surprised he had not seen the previous evening. They all seemed to be of Hekapoo's species, pale-skinned and horns from their heads. The woman was singing in a language he didn't understand, but he was nevertheless entranced with her voice. He did, however, catch one word that sent chills through him: banshee.

At length, the group ceased, packed up their instruments, and proceeded back into their caravan before driving off to the east (the caravan, of course, being pulled by some impressive looking warnicorns). He was wondering if the group had seen a banshee wandering in those woods and was tempted to run down and ask them, but he realized he would never make it down the mountainside in time before they were gone.

Either way, he knew that more of the Hekapoo clones were to the south, straight through this forest. It would seem that he had no choice but to brave whatever phantasmagoria was in there.

He then thought about last night, what Hekapoo had said, what his purpose was, and what was ultimately the right thing to do.

Did Star remember him? Would she scold him for having lost her precious scissors? Had she finally found a way to save Glossaryk and the Tome? Did she stop Ludo? What did she look like now that she was older?

Still, none of this speculation mattered. He was a steadfast tin soldier and would not falter from his quest. These scissors were just within his grasp, and he would brave whatever haunted forest, dangerous cave, or horrendous dungeon in order to return them to her and set things right. Star was his princess...no, she was his queen and meant the absolute world to him. No matter how far apart they were, across oceans of time and space, he would always feel close to her and would do his best to return to her.

Thus, he headed down the mountain, sword at the ready, prepared to face the unknown.


End file.
